JUST AS THE WINGED ENERGY OF DELIGHT

Just as the winged energy of delight
carried you over many chasms early on,
now raise the daringly imagined arch
holding up the astonishing bridges.

Miracle doesn't lie only in the amazing
living through and defeat of danger;
miracles become miracles in the clear
achievement that is earned.

To work with things is not hubris
when building the association beyond words;
denser and denser the pattern becomes
being carried along is not enough.

Take your well-disciplined strengths
and stretch them between two opposing poles.
Because inside human beings
is where God learns.

— Rainer Marie Rilke (1924)
translated by Robert Bly